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Crab Soup

A soup made from boiled crabs, rice, okra, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Crab Soup

Why it works: Rice and okra match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 250 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Crab Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crabs

  1. Scald the crabs to kill them.

  2. Open the crabs and remove inedible parts; set the fat aside.

Cook the soup

  1. Place the crabs in a pot and stew for about an hour.

  2. Add a little salt, pepper, rice, and sliced okra.

  3. When nearly done, add the fat and boil for 5-10 minutes.

  4. Serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Rice + okratop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together250 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Pepper + okratop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Crab + okratop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together33 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Crab + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together117 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Crabs
Provide the main flesh and rich seafood flavor that forms the body of the soup.
Rice
Thickens the broth and adds body as it cooks down with the stew.
Okra
Releases mucilage that thickens the soup and gives it a silky texture.

The step that matters

Adding the fat near the end. Fat added while the soup is nearly done and boiling briefly keeps its flavor bright; boiling it too long can make the broth greasy and muddy the taste.

Swap the okra

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, pepper, rice):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Okrathe original
  3. Spinachfits less well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, pepper, rice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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